CFN – Maybe Claude’s got it right? Puke up whatever venom comes to mind without being there or having any grasp of reality? After all, you only need to have your editor make a hidden retraction right?
After having to make two retractions on behalf of their veteran scribbler Claude exploded again; this time taking a shot at your humble scribbler in his latest column.
It’s quite a piece of fiction and as a fiction writer when I’m not working CFN I should know. Mr. McIntosh was not present at council. I have a hunch he wasn’t watching it either. He generally gets his info “second hand” instead of fresh like most of us actually working in the field.
It’s why he got the Free Holder into such trouble over the Waterfront Public Consultation where he called an attorney and other upstanding citizen “Jerks”.
In today’s column I’m the target. He attacked on Monday night’s motion by Councilor Maurice Dupelle to have the City of Cornwall have a link to our 100 Letter campaign about how amazing Cornwall is. LINK
Terms like Murky, and rehabilitation were used.
By Tuesday morning the sliver of support the motion had was melting like spring snow with the councillor who made the motion jumping off the bandwagon. A quick headcount indicates, at best, support has dwindled to one lonely councillor.
Coun. Maurice Dupelle sponsored Monday night’s motion, reasoning that it would be a good way to smooth the toxic relationship between city hall and the Cornwall Free News founder/owner/publisher, editor-in-chief/advertising director/reporter/columnist, etc.
The message from the councillor seemed to be that the CNF was willing to rehabilitate itself if the city would form the partnership at no cost to the city. This followed an unsuccessful bid by CFN to squeeze money out of the economic development department for the project.
What’s interesting is the hatchet job did not include a phone call to CFN. We were asked by Mark Boileau to provide a proposal. All we ever had asked was to have our event, which would benefit the city, published on the city’s facebook page and websites. When the city actually sponsored our Art Court event they refused to do so.
Coun. Elaine MacDonald suggested that the CNF might be more blog than traditional news outlet.
Yes, it was quite shocking to hear Councilor MacDonald suggest CFN wasn’t a newspaper, showing just how disconnected the senior is from the reality of today’s media. She sure thought we were a newspaper when she put in a near midnight call to us to help her when she and her NDP friends did a sit in at MP Lauzon’s office.
Instead of taking the more prudent high road, when the meeting ended the founder/owner/publisher, editor-in-chief/advertising director/reporter/columnist/videographer, etc. made a less than cordial comment as he waltzed past the mayor, then, according to Coun. MacDonald, offered his opinion of her while shaking his finger inches from her face. The up-close and personal scolding moved to Coun. Bernadette Clement who hadn’t endorsed the motion.
That’s when Coun. Gerald Samson, a retired police officer, said he stepped in.
Samson said he cautioned the somehwat irked founder/owner/publisher/editor-in-chief/advertising director/reporter/columnist/videographer, etc. that his gesture could be viewed as threatening and that he could be charged with assault.
“I told him the next time he did that I would call the police,” said Samson who was still upset on Wednesday.
The route from the media table to Councilor MacDonald is nowhere near the mayor. I did in fact tell councilor MacDonald that she was one of lowest forms of scum I’d ever seen. Councilor Samson did try and intimidate me by saying that as former police officer that the position of my finger is assault and that I could get arrested. Again, Mr. McIntosh was not there and blew the quote. Mr. Samson at no point said that he would call the police. As for the inches from her face? Well there’s a very large desk between councilor MacDonald and myself. It would be quite a dramatic stretch for me to have my finger be “inches from her face.”
If a member of mainstream Corus Radio, the Seaway News or Standard-Freeholder had given that kind of performance, you can rest assured they would be searching the jobs wanted ads the next day.
It’s odd that Mr. McIntosh didn’t mention my epitaph to my co-scribblers who all buy stopped typing the minute Councilor Dupelle’s motion hit the floor. Nor will you have read about that motion in the other media. Frankly none of these outlets should really call themselves media; more puppets to the dollars City Hall and the clique pump into them. The minute media bankrupt their morals to the call of advertisers they are no longer truly media. It’s a hard line to balance, because media need to survive. Talented journalists are expensive, something that Mr. McIntosh has seen first hand with his years of experience.
The always diplomatic Kilger shied from offering his opinion, at least publicly, of the verbal shot at him.
Nor would he comment on a T-shirt the founder/owner/publisher/ editor-in-chief/advertising director/reporter/columnist/videographer, etc. has fashioned.
It reads “Bare Ass Bob”.
It would not be unreasonable to suggest that it is a tasteless shot aimed at the mayor.
And that ladies & gents is the crux of Mr. McIntosh’s column. Claude’s favorite source at City Hall and Mr. McIntosh’s zeal to protect his buddy; damn truth,facts, or friction. Who wrote the mayor’s campaign speeches his last two elections? The Bare Ass Bob is not a suggestion of a tasteless shot. It’s a direct political cartoon directed at a mayor whose corruption, ignorance, and arrogance has cost this city millions of dollars and counting.
Whose lack of leadership and the impact of those that have supported him and helped hide his antics have given him a false illusion of power.
And the kicker to Mac’s column is that the Freeholder is not allowing comments so that the public could speak their truths; something that the Free Holder sadly seems to have lost a grip of and probably why a chain owned newspaper with over 10o years of history has been a distant second to CFN for over two years on Alexa.com and overall traffic numbers.
Sad dontcha think? CFN has sent an email to editor Brian Dryden. We are demanding a front page retraction and apology from Mr. McIntosh. The last two retractions; one of which occurred last week were done on his behalf by the paper. To read Mac’s mess click here. LINK
Last week’s retraction LINK His leaked story over the CAO candidates, the one the mayor ran out of the council chamber of when I asked him to confirm if he was himself Claude’s source. LINK Apology over the Rivette hatchet job. LINK Our calling him on his Rivette hatchet job. LINK
And to see some really bizarre shite in action you can check out the mayor and council scrambling to repel Councilor’s Dupelle & Rivette’s motion to have a link to our 100 Letter campaign and the city’s facebook page.
And finally; it’s funny that Mac is writing about CFN instead of the hottest topic locally of the week, the Whistle Blowing issue at City Hall after Fay Brunning released a statement that she is representing two city managers? Now that’s toxic. Doubt we’ll ever see a column about that. Mr. McIntosh also stated that former CAO Paul Fitzpatrick, whose friendship with the mayor has been a huge issue and conflict for the city; would never resign or retire. Oops! Claude got that wrong too.
Is Mr. McIntosh that afraid of losing his best source at City Hall?
What do you think Cornwall? You can vote in our poll and post your comments below. CFN, unlike our erstwhile competitor is not afraid of the public. After all if you’re going to stand on a soap box you should never be upset if someone throws a tomato at you.
You can vote for more than one option.
Mac & his cheesy friends are behaving like children,sour grapes is all because CFN is the number One read on-line newspaper,no need at all to resort to lies & or name calling like its runner up!!! Mac,s words when not plagerism is second hand bar talk! I,m sure that Mac is just paying bare ass bob for his son getting a municipal job
Yes, you can’t misrepresent the truth like that! Thanks for posting the video
Tact Jamie. It’s all about tact.
The C. Mc. factor has been well known for years. Beer and nuts are real WINNERS don’t you know.
Look, every one wants a story line and everyone wants to read one. Some smooze em’ out, some whip em’ out, some are cocky about it some enjoy a scotch or two. Others pass a buck, buy the rounds or just get some luck. Luck is harder to get without the other.
Now the Jam and Cla stories will be out claim to city fame….or will that take us to infamous levels yet even more?
Burn him! Burn him with fire!
Where did Mac go to journalism school if he did. His spelling and grammar are terrible.
He has to now live by the sword, as he has stated that employees of the other media would be looking for a new job based on what occurred. I think falsification of several stories is more of a liability to the editors than being upset over a stitch up at council
Jamie,,,, Let’s face it, there is a lot of pressure on the Freeholder staff, to turn the downward spiral that they’ve been on ! The “MAC ATTACK” is a sign of desperation, not only that , but closing down their comment site, now that’s truly gutless ?
As time goes by, more & more citizens are waking up to the way our City mandarins have been performing ? I’m convinced that this Council, has all but run out of rope ! I’m awaiting to see if the “bullies” gang up on Dupelle, like they did to Andre ? We won’t have to wait long, if he caves, they got to him also ! Then, we’ll have to wait it out, for the election. If , we all band together and support the “BIG FLUSH” , we”ll be starting out with all fresh new Concillors & Mayor .
Mr. Magoo sadly CFN may not be here to see the big flush. We have been told my sources at City Hall that the City, in what must be a move of utter desperation, is serving us with legal documents and that several harassment suits are on their way to tie up our time and resources.
Let us know what needs to be done Jamie
If we need to start fundraising or helping out in other ways
This may be the spark that can galvanize the city and show the councillors that while they can bully an individual, the might of the populace can oust them
What gets my goat, these people who work at the city including elected officials have done nothing but lie, cheat on their wives, use corporate credit cards to fund their own selfless worth, spend millions on cover-up pay outs at the expense of the tax payer, use every chance they can to put themselves in a newspaper in hopes, just in hopes, people think they are actually good people.
You people at the city including city qliques know exactly who you are are, nothing but low-life scum bags, you all have painted Cornwall with a picture no better then what the dump looks like on a good day. In fact we know all to well who you are, SCUM.
What gets me even more angry is their is so much proof of theft, lies, scandles, pay-offs, conflicts of interests yet nobody in the entire city will really do anything about it. Jamie, you say they are threatening you with papers, maybe its time Jamie you get W5 involved once and for all to really get to the bottom of what these low lives are up too. Put that on the front cover.
Oh and another thing. Samson, were you not the {MODERATED} cop who beat your {MODERATED} to a pulp? and you have the balls to call finger pointing a threat. Your a true {MODERATED} yourself.
Thank you Stephen. That’s going to be tough as we have problems getting people out for health care issues,but if the work that I and CFN have done for this community over the last four years has meant anything I’d truly love to see council filled with people at the next meeting. I am not going to appeal to the public for funds. We have resisted that type of funding. If CFN is to survive as a newspaper it has to be funded as one. If local business doesn’t support the community then the community will not have CFN. We can’t all say shop local and buy local and then not support our only locally owned and run news corporation. CFN will live or die on the will of the people that make this community what it is.
citybs we are already in communication with some National media and I do believe a few more are starting to get interested in this case of a corrupt mayor using tax payer dollars to cover up the misdeeds of his “friend” the CAO as well as his own antics while most of his council sat in silence and said and did nothing. And then the wholesale demolition of the only real independent media in his city for helping expose the mess.
Bullshit lawsuits are bullshit lawsuits. Countersue and it won’t reach court for years.
Did I say burn him? Burnings too good for him. Send him to the Iron Maiden. His kids used to listen to Iron Maiden when they sold {MODERATED}.
I have always found the truth to be far more interesting than fiction. When faced with the truth I have more often than not considered who could have thought that up ! Small wonder then that I am drawn to movies that have been based “on actual events”.
The simple truth for me concerning the Standard Freeholder is that the absence of a proof editor to correct grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors renders the read intolerable. Now couple that with irresponsible reporting and I ask you what is the point ? To clarify “irresponsible reporting” let me simply say that when retractions, corrections or apologies follow a piece it is my opinion it is due to the fact that either bias or incompetence is also nearby !
CFN affords me, the reader of this e-newspaper, the opportunity of not only commenting/challenging the validity of the opinion of the reporting of the contributing writer but also the opportunity to see if others agree or disagree with my take. This contributes to allowing me the opportunity to possibly alter my stance on an issue. Thereby assisting me in remaining open minded.
If I were to receive from the City of Cornwall a legal notice concerning my reporting/opinions then it would be to me a possible foreshadowing of new positions at the city being contemplated, THOUGHT POLICE, subject of course to a vote by council.
to see if any one else shares my take.
If the City feels the need to serve papers over what many believe and know is the truth well let them, keep in mind they will have to defend everything that has been covered up and trust me when the story starts, more truth about all their lies and cover ups will come out, including other people who were (silently) in on it will be running for the hills.
The Bobs of the city and their group of local friends are the ones who created this mess, all the back room sessions of lies, affairs, payoffs just to name a few were not created by the citizens of Cornwall (well maybe some yes)
It does not take a rocket scientist, the more lies and BS you create eventually no matter who you are or think you are, who your friends are including the ones in high places, it all comes crashing down. I hope very soon National News from the entire country pay a visit to the City of Cornwall and start asking questions. Watching these clowns in action will be priceless. My advice to all your arseholes…. start worrying, its coming.
Jamie,Here is some advice,They no they can,t stop you from writing about the truth,but they can sure as hell bankrupt you.(of course with tax payers endless pit of money)The lawyers hate it when people defend these cases without there own lawyer.Try and go it alone its not that complicated and you wil save a truck load of money.Goodluck
Jamie
Big Mac is well past his “due date” and its amazin how he tries to put you down…repeating..over and over…like a playground bully mocking your job title. Maybe if he got out of the local watering hole he wouldn’t have two major RETRACTIONS in under a year.
He tried the same mocking tone while battling with another local reporter years back..and at the project mistruth hearings a journalism prof called it a sad performance of covering local news
He is constantly name dropping fast eddie lumley and acting like he’s the Walter Cronkite of local news. Sun Media must be desperate to keep him around after two screwups that the newspaper did everything in their power to HIDE
His hero seems to be oreilly of fox and his use of PINHEAD truly describes his continuing to comment on events he doesn’t even cover..time to throw out the burgers
I hear you. Actually I found that kind of flattering. Imagine a near one man band beating a team of nearly 30 professional media people in their offices that are owned by one of the biggest media chains in Canada? You’re darn right I’m proud that we’ve been able to draw more traffic than them. And that’s the one thing in Claude’s vomit pool that made me laugh; that he acknowledged how hard I have to work to make it happen.
We are reminded by P.M.’s off the cuff remark, ‘A proof is a proof is a proof’.
Sounded stupid at the time but in effect he is right. I think in a freedom of speech society, lier’s and skull dogs are in close company. Some lie to protect themselves. Some lie to defame. But in politics, it becomes the normal and yes, almost acceptable thing to do.
Hiding mail is the same as a lie. Withholding the truth is a lie. Hiding behind closed doors is to hide the truth is lying to the public as in a cover up scheme…how can we get away with this or that becomes the assumption.
Any way for whatever is circumspect in all of this and that, remember, ‘A proof is a proof is a proof.’
It becomes easier (to see) when one fabricates and even makes grandiose their own background to build themselves up, to put others beneath them or for ‘spin-doctors’ to deflect or regenerate story lines, but to make it a life’s practice as in the case of narcissistic behavior ( take no responsibility for ills, but ALL the responsibility even when it is NOT of your doing), quick to blame and point fingers but hand in the face when the shite hits the proverbial fan. We get a lot of that in politics, of which Cornwall is no exception.
The people have a right to know, scold and hold up to the highest standards, our elected officials. We need, no, require, freedom of the press. In a democratic society, this is paramount. Without freedom of the press, baffle-gab and gobbledygook will run the country.
I’d say we are pretty close to it now. Keep shouting to the roof tops..just remember. ‘A proof, is a proof, is a proof.’
A proof is a proof, is a proof’ comment was P.M. Chretien’s in defense of one of his court cases in Montreal…I do believe.
Dukers Freedom of the press does not exist in Cornwall. CFN has not been challenged once on our facts when it comes to reporting on City Hall. Zero retractions. Zero missives from City Hall.
In spite of our success in marketing for the city they have went to the extremes of lying, creating polices, and now appearing to use other media as a platform to smear myself and CFN.
For over a year now individuals at City Hall seem to be spearheading a move to choke CFN financially and run us out of town.
And if people don’t stand up to these thugs and bullies it will at some point work.
Mack didn’t “blow” the Samson quote about warning Jamie he’d call the police. Clearly Mack called Samson (Wednesday) and Samson lied.
BTW, When did the Freeholder remove its comment section from the online version? And why? Globally, all major news outlets have comments sections.
Could it be a Freeholder/CITY//Crony tactic to eliminate CFNs rightful claim that comments sections are the norm in publishing?
Maybe the Freeholder should eliminate Letters to the Editor too. After all, that would be the best way to muzzle people and turn the newspaper business back a few hundred years.
Is it accurate for Mack to have described Mr. Dupelle’s motion as a smooth over for a so-called toxic relationship ? Would readers of Mack’s attack even understand what the context was? Wasn’t Mr. Dupelle’s motion to request a link to a letter writing contest?
Why is that point not clarified in the attack?
Soc what I find really odd, seeing as Mac mentions The Free Holder, Corus, and Seaway News who were all present at during the event and to whom I also lamblasted at the table for stopping to type during the motion, is that if any sort of occurance happened as Mac stated why wasn’t it covered as news during the 5 days between the event and Mac’s column?
Mac did his interviews according to his column the next day and Wednesday. Surely at best Ms Brink would have scribbled something? Surely one of the councilors would have filed some sort of complaint against me if I’d crossed any line. While I can understand that Ms MacDonald would not like me calling her a Scum bag, and Ms Clement might not have liked me calling her on her deferral vote after having chatted with me about the subject the previous Saturday night, less than 48 hours prior to her voting to defer, which was the deciding vote, if I’d done something really criminal surely some action would have been taken or word spoken?
No, this was a hatchet job and as per McIntosh’s standards, not based on fact. There were other councilors present for my comments to Ms MacDonald; funny how Mac didn’t ask for or get a quote from them…. again, I’ve asked for a Front page retraction and apology from Mac and I expect to get it.
As Claude said in his column; unprofessional people should be given their walking papers. How many retractions will the Free Holder print on his behalf in one year?
There are possibly other reasons for what some are describing as an act of desperation by the Freeholder “scribbler” (gosh I hate that word).
Traditional print newspapers are going out of business; a lesson for those ignorant of the past 20 years of Internet technology and who deny CFN is a newspaper.
Even Jack Romanelli, a respected journalist and former editor of the Standard Freeholder who left Cornwall in 2006 to go the the Halifax Daily News (which shut down and has been dead since 2008) was quoted saying: “Part of the reason for the newspaper’s closing is that it’s hard to keep a print publication running as the Internet makes more and more inroads.”
ADMIN Honourable people are capable of offering an apology when one is required rather than offering up some mitigating circumstance for their actions. The longer the delay in doing what is right only serves to undermine or bring to question the value or sincerity of the apology or retraction. Holding ones breath can lead to dire consequences I would hope that not to be the case in this situation.
http://vimeo.com/54464196
ADMIN further to the need for an apology I would suggest that one is also due to Councillor Maurice Dupelle whose intentions came under question as being rooted in an ulterior motive. Question – Does the Standard Freeholder have an editor?
Oh man, love your passion , your no-bull shit , raw style of representing and delivering an article/story is admirable and enjoyable to read.
The journalistic anal structured formula that consists of long boring words and follows a straight line is dreadful to read and generally far from the truth ….
Who says news must follow a dry “cut” formula without personal opinion.
Doesn’t opinion generally shape the news,just takes guts to say it how it is, or how we interpret it even if it drifts away from the comfort zone and creates controversy.
The Standard Freeholder is junk! I no longer read their articles. They succumb to bullying and don’t truly represent the public and issues at hand. Claude is a disgraceful.
..been away for a while..I see that Feret is still around…time to change your name Feret..someone is going to mistake your stupidity for my stupidity..however, you have sparked my curiousity..you know who I am from previous quotes…why mention Ferris? and why the name similarities? male? female? straight? bi? curious? a friend? or just a crazed fan?